I sat at the oversized fereable, across from Charlotte, head in hands, as the two fas at opposite sides of the roued over the same damhing for the huh time. I’d taken over from the others today, just as I promised, and I was gd that I did. I couldn’t imagine listening to this crap for multiple days in a row.

  At one end of the table was Shattered Skies, a samurai who I’d met for the first time this m. He was advog for more corporate trol at the start, then gradually shifting more power over to civilian trol.

  Apparently Mirage didn’t want to get involved in this fight, so one of his former ckeys had taken up the cause.

  At the other end was Graffiti, another samurai who was pletely o me. He specialized in ing up after incursions and spray painting anti-corp rhetoric upon buildings that he’d ed up. He was arguing vehemently against any corp involvement in the new gover.

  Apparently this was exactly how the previous day had gooo.

  “This city hasn’t had democratic representation for years. There’s no system io review the issues, never mind discussing them in an open forum. Just handing the city over to the people right now is lunacy,” Shattered argued. The man looked like a Mirage wannabe, without the personality. Immacute grey suit, perfectly styled blond hair and goatee, and not a single expression crossing his stony face.

  “Lunacy? The cil has been bleeding the people dry for years. If the people give up trol of the city to a new corporate board ‘until things are ihey’ll never get it back again. The corps will just solidate and hoard the power, like st time,” Graffiti argued, jumping to his feet. Mirage’s dark purple suits were ridiculous, but they had nothing on Graffiti’s outfit. It was a bck overcoat covered in random graffiti tags. Uhat he had a wife beater and bck cargo pants that hung low enough that it showed off his underwear. Between his slicked-back brown hair, smarmy smile, and aviator sungsses, I had problems taking him seriously.

  It arently a ‘cssic’ style, but I thought he looked ridiculous.

  “You two have been at this for two days now,” I groaned. “her of yoing to be on the cil; why ’t you agree on a reasonable approach?”

  “Because reasonable and feasible are two different things. A civilian gover would have to spend months pying catch-up. At least the corporations have policies and procedures in pce, which they draw from,” Shattered expined smoothly.

  “Which they’ll implement, then never expin,” Graffiti roared.

  “I think you’re both blowing this thing way out of proportion,” I grumbled.

  “Just because the corporations have experience running things doesn’t mean they’ll be aer at running the city than civilians. I expect running aablished pany and running an unprepared city are two different things,” I told Shattered, before turning to Graffiti. “And just because the corps had power before doesn’t mean they’ll solidate and hoard it again, especially with a bunch of samurai overseeing the operation. Why ’t we just split the cil in two?”

  “Because that’s the only thing that these two could agree on,” Stalking expined with a smirk. “That splitting the cil into half civilian, half corporate was a bad idea.”

  “Then that’s exactly what we should do,” I announced.

  “What? Why?” Graffiti shouted, jumping to his feet.

  “Because the best promise is ohat no one is happy with,” I expined. “Both of yuments sound reasonable, from a certain point of view, but they’re both biased as fuck.”

  “Look at it this way, with equal representation, you both leave the table secure with the knowledge that your oppo is as miserable as you are.” I said, pushing away from the table. I stood up and stretched my arms, ign the murderous look Graffiti was shooting me. “Holy, I don’t care who’s in trol, as long as they don’t go out of their way to cause more harm to the city.”

  “Do you holy think the city would survive equal representation? It’ll be chaos!” Graffiti yelled.

  “Probably, for the first couple sessions anyways, but if I’ve learned anything from the uy gang wars, ohe two sides bloody each other's nose and learn how far they push each other, things’ll find an equilibrium and calm down,” I expined. “Besides, with samurai on both sides, it’s not like one fa muscle in and take plete trol.”

  Charlotte frowned. “Teddy, darling, I know that robably meant to be f in some way, but I’m not sure equating politics to gang warfare is appropriate.”

  “That’s probably true. I expect there’s a lot less backstabbing and double dealing during gang wars.” This time when both men frowned, I just ighem.

  “So we don’t get a say in this?” Graffiti growled, “I thought the whole point of this meeting was to find a fair promise.”

  “It is,” I agreed, “and if you think this is worth voting on, we do that.”

  I stepped forward and slowly panned my gaze over the table before clearing my throat. “All in favor of finding a different solution?”

  Both men solemnly raised their hands.

  “All in favor of implementing equal representation aing on with our lives?”

  Both Charlotte and I put our hands up, and after a quiudge, Bob stepped forward and threw up one of his paws too.

  I saw the briefest hint of annoyance pass over Shattered’s face, the first time his expression had ged all day. “Do you think this is a joke? That we’ll stand for this if y some informal vote?”

  “Holy? I just want to get on with my life. See, most of my friends are polite and will try to direct your versation. Me? I don’t give a shit what you think. My friends and I have spent the better part of a week trying to keep this city from colpsing uhe weight of all the old cil’s bullshit. Both figuratively and literally, while you two have been off doing fuows what.” I took a deep breath, trying to keep my temper down. “We don’t need your permission, or help, to implement a new gover, but since you represent the twest samurai political fas, Charlotte suggested we involve you both. I fug regret that now.”

  “So what? We either cooperate or our fa doesn’t get to be involved in the new gover, is that it?” Graffiti asked, uain.

  “Not your fa, you,” I crified, pulling my chair back to the table and sitting again. “What her of you seem to have grasped over the st few days is we had no obligation to include you in these discussions. It would have made things easier if you both had e together and helped us, but now I see the two of you are nothing more than a hindrance. Get out.”

  Charlotte looked at me with a small smile and a raised eyebrow but didn’t say anything. The men, oher hand, looked aghast.

  “You’re really kig us out?” Shattered asked.

  “Of course, we have fug work to do, and you’re not helping. If you twoing to act like fug six-year-olds, I’m going to treat you as such. Out!”

  “You ’t do this!” Graffiti yelled, stepping around the table. I let him get about two steps before Bob stepped between us. Graffiti immediately paled. Maybe he had seen one of the viral videos going around of Bob ripping apart the superheavy tanks.

  “I and will!” I announced loudly. “But I’ll tell you what. If you two go home and think of structive ways to tribute, I may let you participate in the discussion tomorrow. If you two want to just fug moan and pin, don’t bother ing back.”

  The pair exged looks but didn’t argue. Graffiti stormed out without another word, while Shattered strutted fidently.

  Ohey were gone, Charlotte turo me. “Are you sure that was a smart idea? Having the support of those two and their fas would make things much easier.”

  “No… but I was tired of listening to them whine. Besides, they’ll probably be baorrow and far more receptive to criticism.”

  “What makes you so sure?” Charlotte asked with a grin.

  “Because if one of them shows up, but not the other, it’ll put that fa ‘ahead’ in their minds. They’re far too petitive and unwilling to show any weakness, so they’ll both be back.”

  “Correswer!” Charlotte decred proudly. “Are you sure you want to stay out of politics? You have the instincts for it.”

  “No thanks,” I groaned, ying my head oable. “Dealing with those two is tiring enough.”